Texas high school yearbook calls special needs students ‘mentally retarded’

A Texas high school confiscated all the copies of this year’s yearbook after two special needs students were incorrectly labeled as “mentally retarded,” according to KDFW-TV in Dallas.

Mesquite High School distributed the yearbooks on Friday, but the school recalled all the copies within a few hours after the mistake was noticed.

According to the KDFW, the yearbook contained a section for special needs students and incorrectly identified two students as being “mentally retarded.”

The section in question had photos of several students, but school officials said their parents had not given the school permission to use the photos.

“There was an oversight in the editing approval process,” Laura Jobe, the communication director for the Mesquite school district, told The Dallas Morning News. “Those who work inside the special education department know these requirements.”

The school plans to redistribute the yearbooks after the pages have been removed.

“We earnestly regret the term ‘mentally retarded’ was included and offer our apologies to our students and their families,” Jobe said. “The use of the words ‘mentally retarded’ is something we would never condone.”